


General Music and Other Sciences: Part 2

by glamSKANKK



Series: General Music and Other Sciences [2]
Category: Adam Lambert (Musician), Tommy Ratliff (Musician)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - American Idol, Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-02
Updated: 2011-01-02
Packaged: 2017-10-14 08:35:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/147383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glamSKANKK/pseuds/glamSKANKK
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part two of GMAOS. When Adam Lambert is the new raven haired boy in town, Tommy Joe Ratliff's world is flipped upside-down.</p>
            </blockquote>





	General Music and Other Sciences: Part 2

**Author's Note:**

> ** Language. I rated this Teen and Up because it's high school, but there are F*Bombs and Tommy curses a lot. But that's Tommy and to be expected of him.  
> I love AU fics, and I really wanted to take a shot at this thing. This is the first chapter and it's the set-up for everything else. It's not "action-packed" but I promise it pick up the pace!
> 
> Disclaimer: This is all nothing but dirty lies. It's all fake, and I'm not making any bank off of this.

The bell rang and Mr. Matthews began, “Okay guys! No instruments today. Since there are only five of you, I thought we’d try a game. It’s called Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon BECAUSE you can connect any actor to him in six connections or less. So like, say you choose Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks acted with Gene Levy in Forrest Gump who also acted in Apollo 13 with Kevin Bacon. Yeah? Okay. That was a lame example… but you get the idea. So let’s have Tommy Joe, Daisy and Adam work together, then Mike and Penelope work as a pair. Okay? Let’s go!”

Adam. His name was Adam. I never thought of Adam as a sexy name, per se… But it worked for him. And yet again, I caught myself gawking at him. Fuck, man.

I gathered my things together and, as casually as I could, walked the distance toward him. Daisy was laughing behind me. I swatted in her general direction, missing. Adam was watching me, and just radiating confidence.

My face felt hot. Fuck… Was I actually blushing?

“Hey, I’m Tommy… So, you’re new?” Lame. Daisy confirmed that thought with another giggle. I shot her my sharpest sideways glare and she feigned correction.

“Hey, yeah! My parents and I just moved to the area. Kinda dumb, I guess, considering we’ve already begun our senior year. Oh, I’m Adam by the way.” He shifted to face me completely. Wow. He extended a ring-adorned left hand to me, pencil still awkwardly tucked between his fingers, and I almost couldn’t help but gawk. Gawk at a guy’s hand? Really? Well… yeah, apparently. Everything about him was perfect. Blue eyes, black hair, voice like honey and accessories. I shook his hand.

“Who honestly shakes hands anymore?” I looked at him and laughed, reaching for the papers Mr. Matthews was handing me. Daisy snatched one of the two; a picture of Kevin Bacon. “Ha!” Adam laughed a little, too. I watched as one corner of his mouth tipped up into a half-smile. Sexy. He was looking down at the list of movies, shaking his head. “Okay so have either of you actually seen any of these movies?” Daisy rested her chin on my left shoulder. She was definitely a bold little thing.

“Uhm. I can sing Footloose?” Adam looked up at me and a funny and uncertain expression. The three of us cracked up in hysterics. I don’t even know why! It wasn’t that funny, honestly. But we laughed anyway.

“So I guess this game isn’t really going to work out.” Daisy looked at each of us with a slight smile. “Hey, uh, Mr. Matthews!” She waved him over to us. I went to grab a pen from my pocket and accidentally brushed Adam’s leg. My face was hot again. Fuck. “Yeah hey. This isn’t gonna work. Adam can sing Footloose, but that’s about it. We haven’t seen any of these movies, my friend.” The teacher was walking toward us with a fake-sad face. He playfully ripped the papers away from us.

“Fine! Okay! Whatever!” He was always sarcastic. He had the funniest, most sarcastic, shit-head sense of humor out of anyone I’d ever really talked to. Definitely my favorite teacher.

“Okay so… Since we have nothing else to do…” I just kind of looked at both of them. I wanted to talk to Adam, but had no idea where to go with this thought. “I can play the guitar? Electric and acoustic.” I shrugged. I offered up some info. Take or leave it.

“Oh sweet, I play the acoustic!” Daisy began to air-guitar and dance around. What a shit! She was definitely cool. I then realized that I didn’t feel like dying for the first time that day. My episode in the car, trying to kill myself seemed like it was so long ago. It was so different from how I felt now, I could hardly believe all of this happened in the same day… how strange.

“Uh, Tommy?” Adam poked his face into my field of view. I snapped back to the present. “Hey there! You okay? You completely spaced out for a minute. Did you hear what I said?”

Oh shit. “No… I’m sorry. I was thinking about something that happened today before school.” I looked up from my hands. “Uh yeah. Don’t worry about it. It was just dumb.”

“Oh okay. Are you sure?” Adam seemed genuinely concerned. That was a first. No one ever really cared much about me… It was kind of weird, honestly.

“Um… Yeah. Thanks though.”

“For what?” I felt Daisy hit me in the back. She really was snarky.

“For asking. No one… Well I just don’t really have friends here, so… Yeah.” What else was there to say? Closet gay kid, wear makeup every day, fix my hair, always dress well… Yeah, I was the target of all the ass holes and fuck faces in school. That’s all there was (and is) to it.

“Oh… You’re welcome! But what do you mean that you don’t have any friends? You seem pretty likeable to me. I thought you two were friends.” He gestured to me and Daisy.

“Well I guess we are, now. But today was the first day I’ve talked to either of you, obviously for you, Adam. But I mean, I guess I’m too different.”

“Well! I think the three of us are a pretty kickass group. When d you all have lunch?” Daisy piped in, finally.

“I have it ninth.” Then Adam’s face lit up.

“Hey, me too! I didn’t see you today! I was looking for somewhere to sit… but I ended up eating outside by myself, haha,” Oh Adam… He already knows just how to push my mush-buttons.

“That makes three of us! Cool! So wanna eat together tomorrow? I rarely see people at the round table near the kitchen.” Daisy seemed genuinely excited. And honestly, I was, too. Friends.

“Yeah, let’s do it!” Adam’s face lit up once again. God damn, he was beautiful.

Of course, the bell rang. I would hardly call that saved by the bell. But at least it was the end of the day. I still didn’t want to go home. I didn’t know where I would go, but I knew it wasn’t home.

**

About fifteen minutes after leaving school, I ended up at the old soda fountain a couple miles away from school. I hadn’t been there in years. I had a birthday party there once. I was in like third grade, I think. We all got ice cream sundaes and soda. I always used to think it would be cool as shit to work there. But, of course, I never actually got a job there. Why? In all honestly, I was just too lazy. And I don’t really need the money. It’s not like we have money coming out the ass, but I have what I need. And yeah. I just don’t feel like getting a real job.

I opened the door to the shop and listened to the bells ring. Just like the snow this morning, they were happy. Why was everything around me happy? Well not that I wasn’t happy in music. I think I might actually have friends. And that’s a good feeling.

“Hey, what can I get ya?” The man behind the counter pulled me from my trance. He has worked there for as long as I could remember. He didn’t have a lot of hair anymore, but he looked basically the same. Chuck.

“Hey, Chuck.” I looked up at the menu. Everything was good, but nothing particularly stood out. “How about… just a root beer float?”

“Sure. Anything else?” He looked at me quizzically while he grabbed a frosted glass from the freezer. “Tommy Joe, right?”

“Huh?” That was surprising. How in the fuck could he honestly remember me…? “Yeah. How’d you know that?”

“I might be getting old, but I can still remember shit.” He smiled and scooped the ice cream into my mug and filled it up with root beer. “You okay? You look like you’ve had a rough day. Wanna talk?” He pushed my float towards me and I sat on one of the stools at the bar. It didn’t seem like anyone was going to walk in anytime soon. There were clubs and shit to do after school.

“Um.” I looked around a little and sighed, resting my chin of the rim of the cool glass. It felt good, until I got ice cream on my nose and jerked up. I wiped it on my sleeve. “Yeah… If you wouldn’t mind.” I looked up at him, sighed again and reached for my spoon. I shoveled some melted ice cream and root beer from the edge of the cup into my mouth and began. “Uh it started this morning with my mom. She screamed that I can’t do anything right because I put my salty shoes in the dining room where we have hardwood floors and it stained the floor over night… I didn’t even think it was a big deal. It’s just a little salt. But apparently it eats the shit out of the hardwood or whatever… So I yelled back and slammed the door. Then on my way to school, I though about… Well. No never mind. But then when I got out of my car this morning, I fell right on my ass and got called a faggot. Which isn’t anything new, but it was just so much worse today since my day started off like shit.” I paused to check out his reaction and down some of the not-melted ice cream.

“That sounds pretty rough, son.” He looked and sounded genuinely sympathetic. “You get called ‘faggot’ often?”

I just looked at him. “Let’s be honest. Look at me. I might be in the closet, but it’s a little obvious. I wear makeup, I do my hair, I care about what I look like… It’s not exactly a secret. I mean, I’ve never had a boyfriend. I’ve had girlfriends, but they’ve done nothing for me. And by nothing, I mean not even half-hard.” Just being honest. “But today, I met this new kid in my General Music class. His name’s Adam. And he’s just… perfect. I mean… I don’t even know where to begin, you know? But he just moved in not too long ago. The Lamberts?” I chugged down some more of my now-creamy root beer.

“Can’t say I know them.” Thank god he wasn’t a homophobe. Thank fucking god.

“And then there’s this girl, Daisy, who has been in my music class for awhile, but she just started talking to me today. She’s pretty funny. She says that she’s going to help set me up with Adam. Apparently it’s blatantly obvious that I like him. Is that weird, though? I mean, I’m like ass over tin cups for this guy after working with him on one project. Well not really a project. More of a game. But still… weird?”

“Nah, I don’t think so. Ever hear of love at first sight, Tommy?”

“That’s shit for fairy tales, though. My life is hardly a fairy tale.” Ain’t that the fucking truth.


End file.
